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by Bamber Gascoigne

Finnish journalist and writer whose first collection of poems appeared in 1935. Kajava's career in literature spanned over 50 years. He published nearly 40 books, mostly poems. Kajava started among the proletarian writers of his native Tampere, and became known after the World War II as an advocate for humanistic views and optimistically colored poems of life, work and the family.

"He has long since
----lost his vigour in these streets,
all he grows now
----is a beard, case histories,
----application forms, protest."
(from 'This Is How It Is,' 1972)

Viljo Kajava was born in Tampere as the son of a tailor. In his childhood Kajava witnessed the conquest of Tampere during the Finnish Civil War (1917-18) and returned later in his works to the traumatic events. Kajava started to write poems already at school, where he edited the school magazine Vasama. He graduated from the secondary school in Hämeenlinna, and made his debut a writer RAKENTAJAT (1935), a collection of poems which draw its subjects from pacifism and the life of workers.

In the 1930s Kajava was closely associated with the literery group Fire Bearers. He also wrote for the Marxist literature magazine Kirjallisuuslehti, and was a founding member of the literary group Kiila (Wedge) with Elvi Sinervo, Arvo Turtiainen and others. Kiila's members favored radical free verse and were more or less Marxists.

But more than the theory of socialism Kajava was influenced by the Swedish writer Harry Martinson and great American (Whitman and Sandburg) and Russian (Blok, Jesenin, Mayakovski) poets. Later he moved from social critic to more impressionistic and nature orientated lyric. In 1937 Kajava published his second collection of poems, MURROSVUODET, which depicted his birth town Tampere with its factories, workers and cramped outskirts.

From 1940 to 1944 Kajava worked at the magazine Aseveli and participated in 1942 Writer's Congress in Weimar in Hitler's Germany. During the Continuation War (1941-44) Kajava served in the army at the information department and wrote for the war anthologies SOTATALVI (1942) and LAULUN MIEKKA (1944), which supported the official, patriotic views in Finland. He also published three own books.

After the WWII Kajava lived from 1945 to 1948 in Stockholm, where he worked for an insurance company. In Sweden he met among others Harry Martinson, and published two Swedish-language books, TILL HAVETS FÅGLAR and NÅGONSTANS. He returned to Finland in 1949 and worked to 1954 as a subeditor of magazine Suomen Kuvalehti and wrote critics for the newspaper Suomen Sosialidemokraatti from 1949 to 1965. In 1956 Kajava won the first Eino Leino Society Award - the organization was founded by the modernists. He translated works from such authors as Jaroslav Hašek, August Strindberg, Tarjei Vesaas, Pär Lagerkvist and Erle Stanley Gardner.

Veistän patsaan
ja te syljette siihen,
tietämättä ketä patsas esittää,
tietämättä kuka on patsaan veistänyt.
En ole veistänyt yhtäkään patsasta,
joka ei esitä teitä.
Syljeskelkäämme itseämme.
(from Muuttumatta, 1955)

Among Kavaja's later collections are TAMPEREEN RUNOT (1966), which returned to his childhod memories of the battle of Tampere, and VALLILAN RAPSODIA (1972), depicting the the working-class section of Helsinki. When Arvo Turtiainen wrote odes to Rööperi (Redhill), another working-class area, Kajava celebrated the milieu and people of Vallila, its wooden houses, small shops, Inari Road with the kids at their skipping ropes. "It's going well today / with the sun shining on Inari Road, / and the sheets in the typewriter / trying to take off and fly: / shaggy wings of song." Typical for Kajava's poems are their visuality. His mature, humanistic wisdom was widely accepted among different literary generations.

For further reading: Tulenkantajat by Kerttu Saarenheimo (1966); Kirjailijat puhuvat. Tulenkantajat, ed. by Ritva Haavikko (1976); Kapinalliset kynät by Raoul Palmgren II-III (1984); A Way to Measure Time, ed. by Bo Carpelan et al. (1992); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfied (1998) - See: The Fire Bearers: Olavi Paavolainen, Katri Vala, Yrjö Jylhä, Lauri Viljanen. - See: Kajava was also member of the literary group Kiila with Elvi Sinervo and Arvo Turtiainen.

Selected works:

• RAKENTAJAT, 1935
• MURROSVUODET, 1937
• HYVÄSTI, MUUTTOLINTI, 1938
• LUOMISKUUT, 1939
• ANKARA MAA, 1941
• MUISTATKO VIELÄ PAULIN, 1942
• KAHDEN SYDÄMEN TALO, 1943
• HELLYYS, 1944
• SULJETUIN SILMIN, 1946
• TILL HAVETS FÅGLAR, 1948
• NÅGONSTANS, 1949
• SIIVITETYT KÄDET, 1949
• HYVÄ ON MERI, 1950
• YKSINÄISIÄ NAISIA, 1950
• VIHREÄ KARTTA, 1951
• JOKAINEN MEISTÄ, 1954
• MUUTTUMATTA, 1955
• ENNEN ILTAPÄIVÄÄ, 1956
• PEIKOT, 1956
• LINTUKAUPPIAS, 1957
• TULITEEMA, 1957
• NUORUUDEN AAMU JA ILTA, 1958
• TAIVAAN SINEEN, 1959
• KOSKETUS, 1979
• VILJO KAJAVAN KAUNEIMMAT RUNOT, 1959
• KYMMENEN ILMANSUUNTAA, 1961
• EI KUKAAN OLE VOITTAJA, 1962
• RUUSUJA, LUNTA, 1966
• TAMPEREEN RUNOT, 1966
• KÄSITYÖLÄISEN UNET, 1968
• VALITUT RUNOT, 1969
• REYKJAVIKIN VALOT, 1970
• VALLILAN RAPSODIA, 1972
• RANNAT TASANGOT VUORET, 1974
• LÄHELTÄ, 1975
• RANNAT, RANNAT, 1977
• AIKA RAKASTAA, AIKA LAULAA, 1990
• KORKEASSA IÄSSÄ, 1992
• MAAN JA MEREN RUNOT, 1992
• VIELÄ PIIRRÄN VIIVAN, 1996
• SINUSTA, MINUSTA, HISSISTÄ JA JAZZ-BANDISTA, 2000 (ed. by Jarkko Laine)

Selected translation works:

• Hašek: Kunnon sotamies Shvejkin seikkailut maailmansodassa I-III, 1935-37
• Strindberg: Punainen huone, 1939
• Gardner: Kleptomaanin jäljet, 1944
• Lagerkvist: Runoja, 1953
• Strindberg: Uninäytelmä, 1955
• Vesaas: Suojailma, 1955
• Vesaas: Sininen nappi, 1956
• Diktonius: Runoja, 1963